In the wake of several weeks of back and forth between Apple and Adobe regarding Flash, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has posted an open letter explaining Apple’s position on Flash, going back to his company’s long history with Adobe and expounding upon six main points of why he thinks Flash is wrong for mobile devices. HTML5 naturally comes up, along with a few reasons you might not expect.

It’s not open: “While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.” HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript, on the other hand, exist as open web standards.

The “full web”: Steve responds to Adobe’s claim of Apple devices missing out on “the full web,” with an age-old argument (YouTube) aided by the numerous new sources that have started providing video to the iPhone and iPad in HTML5 or app form like CBS, Netflix, and Facebook. Regarding the games argument, he states that “50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free.” If we were keeping score we’d still call this a point for Adobe.

Reliability, security and performance: Steve states that “Flash is the number one reason Macs crash,” but adds another great point on top of this: “We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it.”

Battery life: “The video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software.”

Touch: Steve hits hard against one of the web’s greatest hidden evils: rollovers. Basically, Flash UIs are built around the idea of mouse input, and would need to be “rewritten” to work well on touch devices. “If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?”

The most important reason: Steve finally addresses the third party development tools situation by writing that “If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features.”

Jobs concludes in saying that “Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice.”

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available and let us know what you think in the feedback section.

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The individual who found the lost fourth-generationan iPhone prototype, then reportedly held onto it for weeks and sold it for US$5,000 has been identified as Brian Hogan, a 21 year old resident of Redwood City, California.

Per Wired’s Threat Level blog, Hogan attorney Jeffrey Bornstein told Wired that Gizmodo has “emphasized” to his client that “there was nothing wrong in sharing the phone with the tech press,” a restatement of events apparently intended to downplay the fact that the tech blog publicly paid Hogan for receipt of a device that clearly did not belong to him.

The blog posting stated that Hogan was only able to access Facebook on the prototype phone before it was shut down. Gizmodo reported the phone owner’s identity via that Facebook page, making it clear that Hogan had detailed knowledge of who the phone belonged to, despite Hogan’s decision to hold onto it for weeks before selling it to Gizmodo along with the identity of the engineer who had lost it.

A report by CNET noted that Hogan “had help in finding a buyer for the phone.” It identified “Sage Robert Wallower, a 27-year-old University of California at Berkeley student” as an associate of Hogan.

CNET said Wallower acted as a middleman, along with at least one other unnamed individual, who “contacted technology sites about what is believed to be Apple’s next-generation iPhone.” The report noted that Wallower “previously worked as a computer security officer at the publicly traded Securitas corporation and that he possesses ‘top-secret clearance,’” according to his LinkedIn profile.

The report also noted discovery of an Amazon suggestion list created for Wallower by a friend which included “a book co-authored by ex-hacker Kevin Mitnick titled, ‘The Art of Intrusion: The Real Stories Behind the Exploits of Hackers, Intruders and Deceivers.’”

Wired’s latest blog posting sympathetically characterizes Hogan as working in a church-run community center and serving as a volunteer benefiting Chinese orphans as well as orphans in Kenya who need medical care. A previous Threat Level blog entry on the iPhone prototype story debuted the idea that “news accounts depicting the $5,000 payment as a ‘sale’ are incorrect,” setting the stage for later identifying Hogan as a hero to orphans worldwide, who simply ‘made a mistake involving sharing,’ rather than being a thief who sold stolen merchandise for thousands of dollars instead of returning it to its known owner.

If you were curious about the exact components to go into the fourth-generation iPhone, a report from The Chosun reported Wednesday that Korean electronics giant LG Innotek will supply 5-megapixel camera sensors for the upcoming handset.

Per the article, LG Innotek began “producing the sophisticated cameras at its plant in Gumi this month and will mass produce them starting in the second half of this year.”

The report contradicts a rumor issued this past December, in which it said that OmniVision, the supplier of CMOS image sensors for the current iPhone, expected to see demand for its sensors in iPhones grow as high as 45 million after it secured a deal to supply a 5-megapixel camera for the next-generation iPhone.

In addition to the camera upgrade from 3.2 megapixels to 5.0 megapixels, the fourth-generation iPhone model is also expect to gain a camera flash. Sources close to the story stated that Apple had been shopping around for LED camera flash components and may have settled on Philips’ LUXEON LED camera flash technology.

Since then, there has been substantial supporting evidence supporting those claims, such as the presence of camera flash functions in Apple’s pre-release builds of iPhone Software 4.0.

The fourth-generation iPhone, is also expected to ship with a front-facing video camera that will work with a mobile version of Apple’s iChat video conferencing software set to debut at the same time.

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Apple on Wednesday released a widespread developer beta version of its Mac OS X 10.6.4, the fourth maintenance and security update for its Snow Leopard operating system. Until now, the future OS had been under development internally for several weeks.

According to AppleInsider, the beta, labeled Mac OS X 10.6.4 build 10F37, made its way to Apple Developer Connection (ADC) members just one day after a more elite set of testers belonging to Apple’s Apple Seed program were able to test the beta.

According to sources familiar with Wednesday distribution, Apple has asked developers to test four key areas of the system, including graphics drivers, Windows file sharing, USB devices and Voice Over.

Although the build released to ADC members on Wednesday is identical to the one issued to Apple Seed members on Tuesday, an emphasis on evaluating Time Machine backups noted in the Apple Seed distribution was not extended to the ADC version.

It’s unclear what specific issues Mac OS X 10.6.4 will target upon its release, as Apple reportedly stopped short of including a list of enhancements with either of the aforementioned distributions.

That said, the updated build could arrive sooner than later given that the Mac maker went through 36 builds internally before tapping its developer community to put its weight on the software.

Apple listed only one known issue in documentation accompanying Wednesday’s build: that iChat will require a password each time it’s launched.

Per MacRumors, Engadget received a comment from AT&T stating that installing data tethering could create high traffic usage that could hamper network performance:

“iPhone tethering has the potential to exponentially increase traffic, and we need to ensure that we’re able to deliver excellent performance for the feature over and above the increases in data traffic we’re already seeing  before we will offer the feature.”

Tethering is the process of using your iPhone as a wireless internet modem for your other devices such as your laptop.

Feel free to hurl your two cents in on this one.

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Following the police raid of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen (the editor who wrote about the now-infamous fourth-generation iPhone prototype), the examination of Chen’s seized computers has been put on hold.

Gizmodo had paid US$5,000 for an iPhone prototype that had been accidentally left behind at a Silicon Valley bar and written extensively about the device.

Per BBC News, Chen’s lawyers have argued that Chen is protected by California’s shield law and State lawyers are considering whether the raids in Fremont were legal.

The shield law states that journalists have the right to protect their unpublished material from examination.

In the meantime, San Mateo county chief deputy district attorney Steve Wagstaffe said he was considering the matter and expected to issue a legal memo later this week.

Wagstaffe cited that the computers would not be examined until then and that the laptops, hard-drive and USB memory sticks that belong to Mr Chen are currently being held by the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team (React), the state’s high-tech crime taskforce that conducted the raid.

They ordered the search after Apple reported the phone stolen.

Earlier, Wagstaffe had defended the raid, saying prosecutors had considered whether reporter shield laws applied to the case but decided to proceed.

He also said that police knew the identity of the person who took the phone and that they had talked to him.

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Late Tuesday, the New York Times confirmed a rumor that Apple had purchased Intrinsity, a privately owned ARM chip design firm.

Citing “people familiar with the deal,” the report also included an estimated US$121 million purchase price, provided by Tom R. Halfill, an analyst with Microprocessor Report.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling indirectly confirmed the purchase, stating that the the hardware maker “buys smaller technology companies from time to time.” However, he added that Apple does not reveal “purpose or plans” with any acquisition.

Sources close to the story also confirmed to the Times that Intrinsity helped to design the custom A4 processor found in the recently released iPad. Weeks ago, one analyst suggested that only Intrinsity could have delivered the A4 processor with its snappy 1GHz clock speed. The Cortex-A8 reference design on which the A4 is based can only be clocked up to 650MHz.

In early April, rumors first surfaced that Apple purchased Intrinsity to help build the A4 chip. Evidence to support the acquisition surfaced when a number of Intrinsity employees changed their company status on LinkedIn to Apple on the first of the month.

The purchase follows similar acquisitions and in 2008, Apple also bought fabless chip designer P.A. Semi for US$278 million in 2008.

Apple also bought a 3% stake in 2008 in Imagination Technologies, maker of the PowerVR mobile graphics chip found in the company’s mobile devices, including the iPhone. Last year, Apple bumped its share to 9.5%. In addition to partnering with Apple, Imagination also competes with ARM Holdings, which makes the reference designs for chips that power the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Per Engadget, developer Greg Hughes has submitted an application that allows the iPhone and iPod touch to sync wirelessly with iTunes over Wi-Fi, and plans to submit the software to the App Store later this week.

The software, dubbed “Wi-Fi Sync,” requires a separate desktop application on either a Mac OS X or Windows machine that allows the sync to occur over a wireless network. Hughes, released the following video that shows the syncing process with the application, which must first be approved by Apple before it could be released for the App Store:

The first sync includes a pairing process that must only be done once to verify that the iPhone is to be synced with the computer. Once a handset has been paired with a computer by accepting prompts on both devices, iTunes is then launched on the computer and begins syncing with the mobile device.

It’s unknown as to whether Apple will approve the application or if it violates the company’s development rules on any level.